This is a major announcement for audio manufacturers, allowing a new Dante implementation option that optimizes price and performance for those applications were two-channels is clearly not enough and 64-channels is overkill - precisely the mainstream audio products that can most benefit from a transition to audio networking. It also will be a critical option to update many older solutions that urgently need support for Dante Device Protocol, packet bridging and multi protocol support for AES67.
The new Dante Broadway chip also offers significant performance enhancements over the low channel-count Dante Ultimo solution, delivering up to 16x16 channels of audio at 96kHz (Ultimo only allows 4x4 channels at 44.1 and 48 kHz, or 2x2 channels at 96 kHz), with latency that can be as low as 0.25ms on Gigabit Ethernet. Products based on Broadway will be able to receive firmware updates with new features and fixes via the network and will allow simple audio interfacing with I2S for direct connection to a wide variety of ADC, DAC, DSP and amplifier chips, apart from SPI, UART, and GPIO interfaces for networked control. Redundancy is also supported in specific configurations for high-availability applications.
Dante Broadway blends the small form factor of Audinate’s renowned Ultimo products with the most popular features of the powerful Brooklyn II module, including support for Gigabit Ethernet. Available in a 256-pin BGA 17mm x 17mm package, Dante Broadway can seamlessly connect new audio products into the growing ecosystem of Dante-enabled systems, while keeping BOM costs down for manufacturers and being relatively simple to implement. Dante Broadway shares many features with the Ultimo family - allowing manufacturers to minimize development efforts.
“As Dante adoption has continued to accelerate, our manufacturer customers are looking to integrate Dante networking more broadly across their product line,” states David Myers, COO of Audinate. “We are pleased to add Dante Broadway to the range of solutions we offer, giving OEMs a cost-effective way to add Dante to mid-tier channel count products.”
www.audinate.com/broadway
